The number of Black men teaching is very low in Arizona and across the country. However, one national organization is hoping to help change that.
For four days a week at Hughes Elementary in Mesa, Shon Pearce is helping pre-kindergarten students read and write. He works as a tutor alongside the lead teachers in the classroom, hoping to help improve kids’ literacy skills.
He also wants to help those who may look like him know that they’re there. Pearce is part of The Leading Men Fellowship, a program part of the organization The Literacy Lab to help increase the number of Black and Hispanic teachers in early education while also helping students.
“I always wondered when I was younger, how teachers felt seeing their kids progress… It feels good. It makes me want to come to work. I don’t feel like this is a job. I’m coming out to hang out with some of my small friends, help them become people,” Pearce told ABC15.
Pearce said he met his first Black male teacher in middle school.
“When I first saw that, it kind of threw me for a loop, because I was like, I’ve never had a male teacher and a Black teacher,” he said.